


Stay With Me 'Til Then

by literaryoblivion



Series: Tumblr Ficlets [31]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Nightmares, Sleep, Sleepy Cuddles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-21
Updated: 2014-03-21
Packaged: 2018-01-16 12:11:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 868
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1346974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/literaryoblivion/pseuds/literaryoblivion
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the whole nogitsune thing with Stiles, Derek gets in the habit of checking in on Stiles. He knows Scott does too, but for some reason he still has to go and see for himself. Usually he arrives late enough at night for Stiles to already be asleep and for him not to know that Derek is there. He thinks it’s better for everyone if Stiles remains blissfully ignorant of the fact that Derek peers into his window every few nights to make sure he’s still there and is doing okay.</p><p>But, often times, Stiles isn’t okay.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stay With Me 'Til Then

**Author's Note:**

> This was for a prompt by [sagasimon](http://sagasimon.tumblr.com): "Prompt: Sterek - Stiles keeps having nightmares about what he's done while being possessed and he can only have a good night sleep around Derek." It was cross-posted on Tumblr [here](http://literaryoblivion.tumblr.com/post/80240093667/prompt-sterek-stiles-keeps-having-nightmares-about).

After the whole nogitsune thing with Stiles, Derek gets in the habit of checking in on Stiles. He knows Scott does too, but for some reason he still has to go and see for himself. Usually he arrives late enough at night for Stiles to already be asleep and for him not to know that Derek is there. He thinks it’s better for everyone if Stiles remains blissfully ignorant of the fact that Derek peers into his window every few nights to make sure he’s still there and is doing okay.

But, often times, Stiles isn’t okay. He’s restless and tossing and turning, and Derek knows he’s probably having some kind of nightmare. It takes all the will power he has not to lift the window and climb in and wrap his arms around Stiles and hold him close and tell him it was just a dream, that he’s okay, that Derek is there and he won’t let anything happen.

His willpower doesn’t last long though.

 ***

On a particularly bad night, Derek can’t stand watching Stiles ball his fist in the sheets and hear him cry out for his dad, for Scott, for him. No one is home, the Sheriff is on duty, and there’s no one else but Derek to quiet and comfort Stiles. So Derek decides to take the risk and whatever consequences that follow and climbs into the window into Stiles’s room. He thinks maybe he’ll just sit by him until the dream is over, but when Stiles calls out his name again, he rushes over and gently shakes Stiles awake.

"Stiles, Stiles, it’s okay," he says when Stiles slowly comes back to himself, breathing hard and eyes slowly focusing.

"Derek? What are you— What’s wrong?" he says, voice hoarse from the cries.

"Nothing, you were screaming. You had a nightmare."

Stiles rubs his eyes. “Yeah, I’ve been having those a lot. Different than they were before, but they still feel real.”

"Different how?" Derek asks and immediately regrets asking, knowing that talking about the nightmare he just had is the last thing Stiles wants to do.

"Instead of dreaming about him and the nemeton, it’s more like I dream I am him, about what he did when he was me, who I hurt… and killed."

"Stiles, that wasn’t you. You know that."

Stiles sniffs, silent tears fall from his eyes. “I know, but it feels like it. It was my hands on that sword in Scott, my—”

Derek stops him before he can go on, “It’s not you.” Stiles nods. “I can stay here till you fall back asleep, if you want?” Derek offers.

"Will you stay longer?"

Derek furrows his brow, confused. “What do you mean?”

"Will you stay even after I fall asleep? You can leave before my dad comes, I’m sure you’ll hear him. But… will you stay with me till then?"

Something squeezes around Derek’s heart with the earnest pleading in Stiles’s voice. “I’ll stay as long as you want me to,” he answers.

Stiles looks relieved by that answer, but when Derek moves away to sit in his desk chair, his face falls. “I don’t want you to be in the chair,” he says. “Too far away.” He says the last part like an after thought.

"I can move it closer."

Stiles shakes his head and scoots over in the bed and lifts the corner of his sheets. An open invitation for Derek to climb into bed next to him.

"Are you sure?"

He nods, waving the sheet in his hand for Derek to hurry up. Derek slips out of his shoes and coat, he briefly contemplates leaving his jeans on, but catches Stiles shaking his head when he steps closer in them. He’s just glad he’s wearing underwear underneath.

When he lays in next to Stiles, Stiles relaxes, burrows closer to him, and Derek lets himself get comfortable, place his arm around Stiles while he slowly falls back asleep.

He wakes up when he hears the tell-tale sign of the Sheriff’s cruiser down the street. It’s almost morning, but Stiles hadn’t woke up again from any other nightmares. Derek slowly untangles himself from Stiles and puts his pants and shoes and coat back on before making his way out the window and down to the ground.

Derek soon discovers that the nights he stays curled around Stiles are the nights that Stiles actually sleeps, doesn’t scream himself awake from any other nightmares. Stiles doesn’t ask him to, but Derek comes over every night after that discovery, wanting Stiles to get his sleep, wanting Stiles to be okay.

He gets used to falling asleep next to Stiles himself, having his warm body pressed against his, feeling the steady rise and fall of Stiles’s chest beneath his palm, smelling the pleasant smell of Stiles as he scoots closer, noses at the back of his neck and behind his ear.

And he thinks, it’s better this way, for both of them, that they both don’t have to fall asleep alone in an empty bed. And when Stiles turns in his arms one night to face him, to slowly, tentatively, press kisses against his lips that he gladly returns, he knows it.

**Author's Note:**

> Come say hi and fangirl with me on [my tumblr](http://literaryoblivion.tumblr.com) or [my twitter](http://twitter.com/lit_oblivion)


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